Ford has finally gotten its most important vehicle back on track

2015 Ford F 150

(Ford)

Automakers are reporting US sales for August Tuesday, and for the most part the story is a familiar one: The market for cars and trucks hasn't been this good in years, driven by cheaper gas, low interest rates, and a recovering employment picture. The pace is for overall sales of more than 17 million new vehicles in 2015.

Trucks and SUVs are faring especially well, as buyers return to larger sets of wheels. In that context, Ford has been a bit of a laggard. It made the decision to re-engineer its F-Series full-size pickup, which for decades has been American's best-selling vehicle.

That process took time, as Ford swapped out steel for lightweight aluminum to improve fuel economy. As a result, the car maker hasn't been able to join the pickup-truck party — revamping F-Series production kept supplies constrained.

But that changed in August. Ford sold more than 70,000 F-Series pickups, the company reported in a statement. Ford was already on a pace to sell more than a half million F-Series pickups in 2015, so the big August — up 5% from August 2014 and the best month for Ford pickups since 2006 — should demonstrate that the decision to "lightweight" the truck didn't send buyers rushing to General Motors' Chevrolet and Fiat Chrysler Automobile's Ram.

So the big F-150 scare appears to be over. The market will accept an aluminum-bodied pickup. This isn't terribly surprising. We spent a week with the new pickup earlier this year and found it to be a terrific truck.

In another interesting Ford subplot to come out of sales day, the formerly left-for-dead Lincoln brand continued its return to, if not the upper reaches of the luxury market, then at least to viability. Lincoln notched its "best August results in seven years," Ford announced.

The brand was led by strong sales of the full-size Navigator SUV and the MKC crossover.

Good US sales in 2015 haven't helped Ford's stock price, however. It's down 11% since the beginning of the auto industry's best year since the financial crisis.

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